Jan Harold Brunvand: 8 books

"If you enjoy these too-good-to-be-true tales, Brunvand's new book will give you hours of pleasure."—Chicago Tribune A fabulously entertaining book from the ultimate authority on those almost believable tales that always happen to a "friend of a friend." Alligators in...

America's premier folk detective is back on the case, sniffing out those zany but dubious stories that "really happened" to a friend of your sister's boyfriend's accountant's mechanic. Jan Harold Brunvand—''Mr. Urban Legend" [Smithsonian]—tracks the most fabulous tales making...

"A wonderfully entertaining book of American folklore and humor."—Elaine Kendall, Los Angeles Times Book Review Professor Jan Harold Brunvand expands his examination of the phenomenon of urban legends, those improbable, believable stories that always happen to a "friend of a friend."

From the master folklorist and sly wit, Jan Brunvand, comes a collection of all-new urban legends. Did your cousin's wife's dentist's daughter go to the tanning parlor once too often and had her insides cooked? Has your husband's brother's nephew teacher try to make a dead rabbit look alive?...

The book that launched America's urban legend obsession! The Vanishing Hitchhiker was Professor Brunvand's first popular book on urban legends, and it remains a classic. The culmination of twenty years of collection and research, this book is a must-have for urban legend lovers.

"A uniquely entertaining book: edifying scholarship, diverting social history."—Elaine Kendall, Los Angeles Times "[The book] captures the spirit of convivial storytelling and even encourages the activity. . . . Many readers . . . will be gratified to know that Brunvand intends...

From roasted babies to vanishing hitchhikers to housewives in football helmets, this exhaustive and highly readable encyclopedia provides descriptions of hundreds of individual legends and their variations, examines legend themes, and explains scholarly approaches to the genre. Revised and expanded...

William Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew has succeeded in surviving in contemporary culture, and has even managed to penetrate to the most modern media of mass communications. This book, first published in 1991, examines some of the different literary and oral versions of The Taming of the Shrew. This book is ideal for students of literature, drama, and theatre studies.